Ever wondered what goes into shaping a lovable main character? We had the unique opportunity to sit down with the writers behind "A Christmas Less Traveled” to dive into their creative process, exploring how they brought the protagonist. Desi, played by Candace Cameron Bure, to life and what themes they wanted the audience to take away from this film.
Before we dive into this conversation, we first want to introduce you to the writers.
Masey McLain is not only a screenwriter but an accomplished actor and producer as well. If you’ve been a Pure Flix member for any length of time, you might recognize Masey as Rachel Joy Scott from the Original movie, “I Am Not Ashamed.” Masey has also appeared in “Because of Gracia” as Amy, which is also streaming on Pure Flix.
Taylor Kalupa was also an actor in “I Am Not Ashamed” as one of Rachel’s friends, Gabby. She most recently appeared in two episodes of the hit series, “The Chosen.”
Masey and Taylor not only wrote “A Christmas Less Traveled;” they also wrote “Just in Time,” which you can also stream on Pure Flix.
Masey: “A Christmas Less Traveled follows Desi, who is the best person on the planet. She loves her people. She owns this really, really charming diner and she gives and gives and gives to everyone around her. But she's kind of walled off her heart and she's still dealing with the loss of her father until one day she finds a cassette tape hidden in his truck...”
Taylor: “...which sends her on a very fun road trip with a charming stranger. And she discovers a lot of things along the way."
Taylor: “One of the main themes that we really wanted to explore was this idea of how, I think a lot of times different generations, especially the younger generation, doesn't really ask a lot of questions from their parents or their grandparents and vice versa, the grandparents or parents aren't sharing with their children.
And we just really wanted to explore this space where all of the lessons and all of the experiences that someone had that they didn't get to share, gets to be told to their child later and how that affects them and how [the parents] wish that they had done it when they had the chance when they were still alive.”
Masey: “Another theme that we wanted to explore in this film was really the concept of [how] life is hard and when things happen it can be easy to wall off your heart and become bitter and just kind of protect yourself. I think that's something we've both gone through at times. And I'll never forget, my dad one time said to me in a really hard season of [life], ‘you can wall off your heart, but you're going to miss out on the best parts of life.’
And that really stuck with me. And I think a lot of us do that [when] we get hurt. But the consequences of walling ourselves off is you miss out on the best parts of life. So, we wanted to kind of explore what that would look like to break free from that.”
Taylor: “And also just the overall theme of forgiveness is a huge one for this movie, which ties into both of those stories.”
Masey: “I think one thing we want the audience to take away from watching this film is [that] we're all stuck in some ways. Like, Desi is stuck since her father passed. She's stuck in pain, she's stuck in [this idea that she] can't move forward. And because she's stuck, she doesn’t know what to do and she just kind of walled off herself.
We want audiences to really evaluate their own lives and [ask themselves,] ‘am I stuck somewhere?’ And then [to realize the] power of sharing that with somebody, of talking about it, and having that breakthrough, that life is too short to live that way. That there's so much that we've been given in life and it's, it's too short to stay stuck.
We really hope the audience takes away that you can move forward, you can have a breakthrough, and Christmas is the best time for that.”
Taylor: “We really hope that people walk away [realizing] you just never know how long you're going to live. Life's too short to not love and not build relationships with the people around you. And that every single second counts, and especially at Christmas time, go tell the people you love, that you love them.”
Taylor: “I think that my favorite memory, I think it's probably one of yours too, is just seeing these characters brought to life. I mean, Candace, playing Desi, particularly for us, is a dream come true. She's an incredible actress, an incredible mentor, and just the most amazing person. So seeing her bring this character to life has been amazing.
When you're reading it on the page and you picture it in your mind for so long up until it goes filming and then you see it happening, like, we've cried multiple times. We've cried, especially at Desi's dad scenes. It's just every moment on set has been wonderful.
We look like proud crazy parents behind the monitor watching. We're just hanging on by a thread, watching their performances, looking like crazy people, jumping up and down, sobbing. I would say that is definitely one of my favorite memories too, [to see] these characters, that you become so close with, when you're creating them, and all of a sudden to see an actual physical person embody them is wild and they're just killing it. It's so special.”
Masey: “Another favorite memory [of mine] would also be [how] this movie hasn't even released yet, and even on set to see how many people the story is touching...Just so many people have said, ‘Hey, I've read the script, dozens of times and I cry every time. This really hits a chord with me. ‘
And that's really what our goal is. Creating these stories [that] touch people's hearts. We can't wait to see what that does on screen. I think that's definitely been a favorite memory so far."
Be sure to stream “A Christmas Less Traveled,” starring Candace Cameron Bure on Great American Pure Flix, starting November 14.